The Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) was established in
1946 as the educational arm of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare
(SCHW). SCEF became a completely separate organization the following year and
based most of its activities out of its New Orleans, Louisiana, office. James
Anderson Dombrowski directed the group and edited its monthly newspaper, the
Veteran journalists and civil rights activists Anne and Carl Braden directed SCEF from the mid 1960s into the 1970s. They forged close ties with regional and local southern civil rights groups, kept civil rights issues in the national media and strengthened SCEF fundraising activities. SCEF worked closely with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from the early 1960s on. Anti-communists in Congress and state government frequently attacked SCEF as a communist front. In 1963, police raided the New Orleans offices and arrested several officials for violating Louisiana's anti-communist laws. The United States Supreme Court overturned the laws in 1965, after SCEF challenged the arrests in court.
The Bradens moved SCEF's offices from New Orleans to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1966. The organization continued to work toward the goal of a southern interracial future. In July of 1973, a group of Black Panthers kidnapped, at gunpoint, two SCEF officials, Helen Greever and Earl Scott. The two eventually escaped, but the incident caused deep divisions within SCEF that were evidenced over the following few months. At a SCEF board meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, in October of 1973, board member Walter Collins denounced several Communist Party members, including Greever, arguing that they had placed the policies of the party over the best interests of SCEF. Collins argued that the Communists had caused the disputes with the Panthers. He and other board members voted to oust the Communists over the opposition of the Bradens.
Eventually, SCEF moved to Atlanta, Georgia where internal disputes and
financial problems plagued the organization. The
The records of the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) span
the period from 1958 to 1985. The documents in the collection are concentrated
from 1970 to 1981. They include correspondence, notes and minutes from SCEF
Board and Interim Committee meetings, financial and fundraising information,
reports from SCEF chapters, information on various SCEF programs and
activities, court documents, correspondence from the editor of the
Donated by Christine A. Lutz, 1991.
Unrestricted access.
To quote in print, or otherwise reproduce in whole or in part in any publication, including on the Worldwide Web, any material from this collection, the researcher must obtain permission from (1) the owner of the physical property and (2) the holder of the copyright. Persons wishing to quote from this collection should consult the reference archivist to determine copyright holders for information in this collection. Reproduction of any item must contain the complete citation to the original. All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.
[item], [folder title], [series title], Southern Conference Educational Fund Records, L1991-13, Southern Labor Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the Georgia State University Library online catalog (GIL). Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Series 1: Meeting Minutes, Reports, and Financial Reports, 1958 - 1981, relates to the inner workings of SCEF. The series contains minutes, reports and correspondence from the SCEF Board and Interim Committee, internal communications, and correspondence with local chapters, policies and resolutions, information on SCEF legal cases, finances, fundraising, SCEF literature, workshops, and projects.
Series 2: Christine A. Lutz Correspondence, 1978 - 1981, contains
the correspondence between
Series 3: Subject and Name Files, 1961 - 1985, consists of
correspondence and related material pertaining to the Amalgamated Meat Cutters
and Butcher Workmen; the strike of poultry workers at the Sanderson Farms
plants in Mississippi; the Ku Klux Klan; the Gulf Coast Pulpwood Association;
the Southwide Coalition to Stop the Coal; the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC); the Student Mobilization Committee to End the (Vietnam) War;
the National Jobs or Income Now Coalition; the National Committee Against
Repressive Legislation; the National Fight Back Organization; various political
prisoners; and other subjects. Series 3 also contains indexes to names, places
and subjects appearing in the
This series includes much material in pamphlet form. The bulk of
this material was produced by SCEF, but there are titles from other local,
regional, and national organizations concerned with opposition to the Vietnam
War, justice for all citizens, and opposition to the influence of hate groups.
The periodicals in this series, excluding the
Pamphlets from this collection are mainly those produced by SCEF,
but the holdings do also reflect titles from local, regional, and national
groups organized around opposition to the Vietnam War, plus those advocating
justice for all citizens of the contemporary South, and the abolition of hate
groups there. Periodicals from this collection, other than the SCEF
Note: List compiled at time of processing. Material must be requested separately; consult reference archivist.
Oversize Periodicals:
Note: Consult Online Library Catalog (GIL)